Setting up EAC (needs to be performed only once !)

• Extraction tab
• General tab
• Tools tab
• Normalize tab
• Filename tab
• Catalog & Directories tabs
• Write tab
• Interface tab
• FreeDB Options

• Extraction Method tab / Detecting drive's Read Features
• Drive tab
• Offset / Speed tab - Detecting Read Offset
• Gap detection

• Fill up missing offset samples with silence
• Synchronize between tracks
• Skip track extraction on read or sync errors - often, tracks which were affected by read or sync errors contain pops and glitches, thus it makes sense to skip these. On the other hand, if you want to extract/archive these suspicious songs, as otherwise this music would be lost forever, you need to uncheck this box. Sometimes, tracks which have read or sync errors, play still without annoying clicks.
• Skip track extraction after duration longer than X times realtime; enter a value between 2 and 4. This is to avoid your drive going through hours of error correction, as it often happens when errors are encountered. Most of the time, these errors cannot be corrected successfully, and there have been reports of damaged drives as a result of hour-long error correction procedures. So, enable this option for your own safety. ;-)
• After each 30 minutes of extraction, cool down the drive for 5 mins - also a measure to reduce drive wear.

• No use of null samples for CRC calculations - disabling this option makes it easier to track down errors related to Offset Correction.
• Delete leading and trailing silent blocks - this you definitely don't want, because the aim of this guide is to create exact backups of CDs. Enabling this option would make an exact reproduction of the original CD structure impossible.
• Lock drive tray during extraction - this option doesn't usually make much difference, but it can be a nuisance if enabled; if EAC crashes for some reason and this option is enabled, the CD drive will stay locked until the next reboot.

• Extraction and compression priority: Normal - Setting this to high speeds up encoding somewhat, but will also steal more processor power from other applications running.
• Error recovery quality: High - This is best set to high, but might lead to hour-long extractions on scratched CDs with certain drives. If set to high, you have a higher probability of getting an extraction without errors/suspicious positions.

• Retrieve UPC/ISRC codes in CUE sheet generation - for CDs that carry this information (many don't), enabling this option is the only way to make an exact copy.
• Use CD-Text information in CUE sheet generation
• Create '.m3u' playlist on extraction
• Automatically write status report on extraction
• On extraction, start external compressors queued in the background - this speeds up the process of ripping and encoding by a large amount, because EAC continuously extracts the CD, and compresses readily extracted tracks in the background. It is recommended to leave the number of compression threads at 1.
• Submit drive features after detection - You benefit from the knowledge of others, so you should contribute, too.

• Do not open external compressor window - this normally doesn't make a difference, but hiding the encoder window also hides possible error messages.
• Activate beginner mode, disable all advanced features - this would override some important options you need access to in order to benefit from EAC's full potential. Also, this guide shows you the professional configuration without secrets. ;-)

• Naming scheme: Enter:
  %A (%Y) C\%N - %T
• Check Use various artist naming scheme, and enter:
  VA (%Y) %C\%N - %A - %T
• Uncheck Replace spaces by underscores. Otherwise,
  _you_will_get_filenames_like_this_-_which_don't_look_very_nice.

Easiest way: You need at least the EAC Offset Test CD, which you can burn by a writer with known write-offset, (read here about detecting your writer's write offset)